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II
“Why are you acting so happy lately.” I had asked Ron one sunny
afternoon, as we skipped stones on the Putama River, tired of
our fist day as High School freshmen.
“I’m in love, man.” Ron smiled, as his eyes lit up under the
sunny light.
“Oh, yeah?” I replied, as I sat down near the riverbank, looking
for that perfect skipping stone. “And who’s that lucky
valentine, eh?”
“I
ain’t gonna tell you.” He said, as he sat down next to me, his
eyes clouded by the poisons of the Cupid’s arrow. “And you’ll
never guess who she is…”
“Jeez, let me see. You’re in love with Kat, right?”
Ron
jumped up with surprise, his eyes wide open, looking at me.
“B-but… H-how…” He stuttered, his hands shaking with shock.
“Heh.” I chuckled a little before I said anything else. “Kat
would have probably figure it out by now, if she’d noticed the
way that you always look at her.”
Ron
slumped down onto the ground again, as he laid back on the
grass, his eyes staring toward the cloudless skies. “Man, is it
that obvious?”
I
lied down next to him, knowing that the stone skipping contest
was pretty much ruined by now. “Nah, it’s just obvious to your
good old friend, that’s all.”
He
looked at me, with eyes belonging to a daydreamer’s, eyes no
longer seeing this world. “Man, I gotta tell ya.” He started to
say, a little smile now pasted on his face. “Being in love is so
wonderful, that Earth seems to become Heaven, and no suffering
is felt as long as you’re in the drug of love. I mean, I even
look forward to school every day, so I can see her again, see
that smile again.”
“Dude, you sound like you’re on crack, man”
“Seeing her smile makes life worth living everyday, and one
touch of her smooth skin makes you feel is if you’re high on
weed, flying though the skies, lost in a weird dream.”
“Now I know you’re on crack.” I said, chuckling a little.
“Ya
gotta try it, man. Then you’ll know what I’m talking about, and
know how wonderful it feels.”
I
did try it out, started a relationship with Lena, a popular
cheerleader. I never felt the fantasies that Ron had described
to me though, never felt anything more than the bland kisses and
the suffocating hugs. Maybe that’s the reason why I broke off
the relationship, because I felt terrible in it, like a rat
trapped in a cage.
Yet
I couldn’t refuse a date to Kat, only ‘cause we’ve been friends
for so long, that it somehow felt weird to say no to Kat.
“Wonder why Ron hasn’t come to school the past few days.” Was
the first thing she said to me that night, as we met at the
Firebird Café, a hot steaming cup of coffee sitting in front of
us.
“Don’t know.” I replied, somehow feeling guilty about the whole
date. My best friend hasn’t come to school in days now, and I’m
here dating the only girl he’s ever loved. I felt like a
diseased rat. “No one’s answering the phones, so he might be out
on an unannounced trip.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She said, as she quietly sipped
her coffee.
I
did the same thing, not knowing what else to say. It felt weird
to be out here, alone with Kat, considering that Ron was usually
with us, a link that kept us all together, a normality in the
group. “This was such a bad idea.” Kat gave a soft laugh, as her
eyes looked up at me.
“No, it wasn’t.” I replied, as I too raised up my head, sipping
the coffee that I held. That was when I stared into her eyes,
her smile somehow hypnotizing me, a calmness falling all over my
body, tingling, bumping. This felt so weird to my body, that it
scared it, making my hands drop the coffee cup, the hot liquid
pouring rapidly across the table. “Oh, shit!” I cried, as we
both instinctively jumped away from it, the coffee now dripping
down the edge of the table.
“Man, I’m so sorry.” I cried again, as I reached for napkins to
clean up the mess, too ashamed to even look up at Kat again, or
I would have seen her reach out her hands for some napkins too,
trying to help me clean up this mess. That was when our hands
touched, as I looked at her eyes again, not knowing what else to
feel. The touch of her skin made me feel as if I was high on
weed, flying though the cloudless skies, lost in a weird fantasy
dream.
I was in love
with Kat. Desperately in love with her. |
